In a data transmission system, one or more data signals are transmitted from a transmitter to a receiver through external transmission links. At a high data rate in the data signal, the unit interval (UI) of each bit in the data signal is very small (e.g., 400 picoseconds at 2.5 gigabit/second). When the data signal flips to the opposite logic state after a sequence of bits in the data signal having the same logic state, capacitors in the transmission links may cause the voltage of the data signal to change too slowly. The effects of the capacitors in the transmission links may cause inter-symbol interference (ISI) in the data signal received by the receiver. ISI may have a negative impact on the performance of the data transmission system.
For example, if the transmitter transmits a sequence of five logical 1 bits (i.e., ‘11111’), the sequence of logical 1 bits charges the capacitors in the transmission links. If the transmitter then transmits a logical 0 bit and then another sequence of logical 1 bits, the capacitors in the transmission links may not discharge fast enough to a voltage that accurately represents the logical 0 in the sixth bit. ISI may cause the receiver to misread the sixth bit as a logical 1 instead of a logical 0.